Every year, Proofpoint observes a seasonal uptick in tax-related malware and phishing campaigns leading up to annual tax filing deadlines. In 2017, these campaigns focused on phishing and increasingly sophisticated social engineering, as well as banking Trojans and ransomware. In 2018, we observed sophisticated email campaigns that featured urgent tax-themed lures and convincing spoofs of IRS branding. Epitomizing one of the major trends of 2018, these campaigns distributed a variety of RATs including Orcus Rat, Remcos RAT, and NetWire. With tax season again upon us, we have seen a similar bump in tax-related campaigns both in the US and internationally. Malware payloads generally reflected the mix in the broader landscape, with a focus on RATs, downloaders, and banking Trojans, while common phishing emails remained pervasive. Malware Campaigns. NetWire is a multiplatform RAT typically delivered via spammed email attachments that contain Microsoft Office files with embedded executables, including .jar files. Many NetWire campaigns primarily target verticals like financial services, businesses, and educational institutions.READ MORE

I'm for real

Enter your email once to access all our information and resources.

(Your email address is required so we know you're a real person)

By downloading this content, you give permission for your contact information to be shared with the content provider who may contact you in regards to the content.